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MR. COOPER'S PAPER 



BIG-BONE LICK, KENTUCKY. 



{From the Monthly American Journal of Geology, &.c. ) 



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NOTICES OF BIG-BONE LICK, 

Including the various explorations that have been made there, the animals to which 
the remains belong, and the quantity that has been found of each ; with a particular 
account of the great collection of bones discovered in September, 1830. By 
William Cooper, member of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Zoological Society of 
London, &c. 

Big-bone Lick, so celebrated for the remains of unknown ani- 
mals that have been found buried there, is situated in a small 
valley in Boone county, in the northern part of Kentucky, with- 
in two miles of the left bank of the Ohio, about half way down ; 
eighty miles distant, northerly, from Lexington, and twenty 
south-westerly from Cincinnatti, in Ohio. 

By licks are meant, in the western country, springy places, 
naturally affording salt, in search of which, the various species 
of herbivorous animals, both wild and domestic, resort to them in 
great numbers. At Big-bone Lick, the salt is deposited from nu- 
merous springs, rising through the soil over a surface of several 
acres. There are likewise several streams of fresh water, that 
enter the valley from different sides ; and these uniting, form a 
small river, which, taking a southerly course, discharges itself at 
the distance of twelve miles, into the Ohio. 

The quantity of fossil bones which appear to have been 
brought together at this place, and deposited within a very small 
area, is truly wonderful. An authentic account of all that have 
been found during the last ninety years, such as might enable us 
to make some estimate of the number of individuals, at least of 
the larger animals, whose remains were here intermingled, as well 
as to form some probable conjecture respecting the circumstances 
under which they perished, and to which they owe their assem- 
blage in this spot, would be at this day most desirable to possess. 
But it is too late to hope for this. Quantities almost exceeding 
belief, and of which no record has been kept, have within that 
period been carried off, and dispersed, no one can now tell 
whither. 



2 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

The present communication comprises such information as the 
writer has been able to glean, of the various explorers of this 
celebrated place ; a notice of the animals which have been found 
here, and the quantity of remains of each ; with a description of 
the ground and other attendant circumstances that can throw 
any light upon its theory. This must be, in several particulars, 
imperfect : and any person who may be in possession of authentic 
materials relative to this subject, is hereby invited to make them 
known, or to communicate them to some competent person for 
that purpose. It is only in this manner that we can expect to 
supply any of the numerous desiderata in the history of Big-bone 
Lick. 

Chronological Notice of the Explorers of Big-bone Lick. 

Longueil, a French officer, seems to have been the first who 
procured fossil bones at this place. They were brought to him 
from a morass near the Ohio, by some Indians who belonged to 
his party. This was in 1739. 

Colonel George Croghan, on his passage down the Ohio, in 
17G5, stopped at Big-bone Lick, and is the first white man who is 
known to have visited it. His description of the place as it ap- 
peared at that time, will be found in another part of this memoir. 

General William H. Harrison of Ohio, was there, and obtained 
many bones in 1795 ; and the French general Collaud, as nearly 
as I can ascertain, about the same period. 

Dr. Goforth of Cincinnati, was the next. He made large ex- 
cavations, and found a great quantity of bones, which was about 
the year 1804 ; the precise date I have not been able to learn. 

He was succeeded by General Clark, the distinguished travel- 
ler, who was there in 1806. 

The Western Museum Society of Cincinnati, have caused 
various examinations to be made for bones, and many more have 
been carried away by travellers and others, within the last twen- 
ty-five years. 

The author, in company with Mr. I. Cozzens, made a journey 
to Big-bone Lick in the summer of 1828. We caused several ex- 
cavations to be made, and collected every thing that seemed 
likely to add to our stock of information concerning the place. 

After all these various explorations, Mr. Benjamin Finnell, 
who resides here, and had previously made considerable discove- 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 3 

ries of bones, undertook another, so recently as the month of Sep- 
tember, 1830. It proved one of the most successful that has ever 
been made. 

His example encouraged Mr. William Bullock, now also of 
Kentucky, to undertake another search immediately after. Mr. 
Bullock likewise obtained a rich and valuable collection ; since 
which all further operations have been forbidden by the present 
proprietors of the land. 

These various collections will be more particularly noticed, as 
well as the materials now existing will enable me, when treating 
of the animals to which the bones respectively belong. But it is 
much to be regretted, that the intelligent men who have enjoyed 
the opportunities, have generally omitted to furnish such descrip- 
tions as would now be useful for our purpose. We possess no satis- 
factory account of what was discovered previous to the visit of 
General Clark ; and of those, even, which he obtained, no suffi- 
cient description has yet been published. A small part is describ- 
ed by Cuvier in his great work ; and a few have also been made 
known by Dr. Wistar. The remainder is still preserved in this 
country, and it is to be hoped we shall not be allowed to remain 
long ignorant of what it consists. 

Extinct animals found here, and quantity of remains of each 
species. 

The remains found at Big-bone Lick, belong partly to animals 
whose species is now extinct, and partly to others, still numerous 
within the United States territory. Our present inquiries relating 
principally to the former, the other will not be especially men- 
tioned, except in the case of some which have been included 
among the cotemporaries of those more ancient quadrupeds. Of 
these the mastodon being the most extraordinary, and that which 
furnishes the greater portion, by far, of these remains, first de- 
serves our attention. 

1. Great Mastodon. (Mastodon maximus,* Cuvier.) 
Such is the quantity of bones and teeth of this species of mas- 
todon, that has been disinterred at Big-bone Lick, that although 
it is the most common of American fossil quadrupeds, and lias 
been found in almost every part of the United States, yet all 

* M. Cuvier having finally adopted this name, we shall make use of it, instead of 
that formerly given, M. giganteum. Vide Oss. Foss. ed. 3. ch. v. p. 527. 



4 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

that have been discovered elsewhere, would not, united, equal 
the number obtained at this single locality. 

Longueil and Croghan each took but five or six teeth and 
bones, being as much as their means of transportation at that 
time permitted. 

General Harrison, as he informed several members of the Ly- 
ceum of Natural History, when in New Fork, about three years 
ago, procured as many as filled thirteen hogsheads, which were 
sent up the Ohio to Pittsburg ; after which he never heard what 
became of them. General Collard, about the same time, obtain- 
ed twenty-four pieces. 

It is not to be presumed that these bones all belonged to the 
great mastodon ; but I am induced to mention them here, on ac- 
count of the probability that a majority of them did. In all the 
collections of bones made here, of which any precise account has 
been given, these always constitute the great mass. And this, 
unfortunately, is as much as is now known of all that was re- 
moved previous to the exploration made by Dr. Goforth. 

Concerning this, our information is likewise very scanty. He 
states that he got of mastodons' teeth alone,* weighing from 
twelve to twenty pounds, " as many as a wagon and four horses 
could draw," besides which were many large tusks and bones, no 
doubt principally belonging to the same animal. A large part 
of this collection passed into the hands of Mr. William Bullock, 
so well known for the services he has rendered to natural history. 
Mr. Bullock, now residing in this country, I applied to him for 
information concerning them, when he favoured me with the 
following reply, dated Nov. 24, 1828. 

" In regard to the fossil bones of which you request informa- 
tion, it is about twenty years since I purchased of Thomas Ashe, 
twelve cases of bones, which I afterwards discovered were col- 
lected by Dr. Goforth, a few years previous to the time I bought 
them. According to Ashe's account, who was present when many 
of them were collected, they were found several feet below the 
surface, and under the stratum of graminivorous bones, which 
you must have observed on the bank of the small river that 
passes near the spring. 

" I had about twenty back teeth, exclusive of perhaps eight 

♦Sec his letter to Mr. Jcflcrson, published in Cramer's Ohio Navigator, 8th ed. \>\>. 
2G0, 302. 

Vol. ! 31 



Notices of Big-hone Lick. 5 

or ten in different jaws, and about ten tusks, among which were 
those of three different animals. The greatest part of these 
bones is now in the museum of the college of surgeons in London. 
A beautiful specimen of the fore part of the head, with all the 
delicate nasal bones entire, is in the possession of professor Mon- 
roe, of Edinburgh ; and the late Dr. Blake, an eminent dentist of 
Dublin, had from me a very interesting collection of teeth in 
various stages of growth and decomposition." 

It will be perceived that the quantity here mentioned by Mr. 
Bullock is small, in comparison with that which Goforth, — of whose 
correctness there is no reason to doubt, — states to have been ob- 
tained by him. A great part of his collection, therefore, still re- 
mains to be accounted for. 

The next considerable collection known to have been made 
here, was by General Clarke, at the instance of Mr. Jefferson. 
The bones were brought to Washington in 1807, where they were 
seen by Dr. S. L. Mitchill,* who published a brief notice of them 
in the eleventh volume of the Medical Repository. They were 
divided by Mr. Jefferson, according to Dr. Wistar, who selected 
them, between the American Philosophical Society, and the 
French Institute. Dr. Mitchill says, there were three parcels 
made, of which Mr. Jefferson reserved one for himself. However 
this may be, there are now very few fossil bones preserved at 
Charlottesville, and it is doubtful whether these are from Big- 
bone Lick. 

Those sent to France are described by Cuvier. They consist 
of an upper and two under jaws with teeth, five detached teeth, 
a radius, tibia, and several bones of the feet. 

The cabinet of the American Philosophical Society, contains 
of the mastodon, two or three portions of the cranium, one of 
them comprising a large part of the alveolar process of a tusk, 
fourteen or fifteen mutilated jaw bones, upper and under, con- 
taining teeth, and from animals of various ages, besides large 
tusks, and pieces of fossil ivory, in considerable quantity, several 
vertebras, and a few bones of the feet. The origin of all these 
is not certainly known at present ; but, though some may have 
been derived from other localities, it is most probable that the 

* Whilst sending this sheet to the press, the Editor has received information of the 
death of this amiable and most eccentric individual. For forty years he has been a 
conspicuous friend to natural science, and for a great portion of that time he kept the 
Uajr of science waving in this country, when he almost stood alone. 



f» Notices ofBig-bcme Lick. 

majority consist of those discovered at Big-bone Lick, by General 
Clarke. 

The western museum of Cincinnati, and Letton's museum in 
the same city, contain many relics of the mastodon, nearly all 
from Big-bone lick. Together there are not less than one hun- 
dred pieces, more than half being grinders, of three and more 
pairs of points. There is, however, in the latter museum, a lower 
jaw, which is remarkable for having both branches tolerably 
complete, though the teeth are wanting. 

My researches at Big-bone Lick, procured me about seventy 
pieces, of which the most considerable were as follows : 

Two large, and numerous small fragments of tusks, presumed 

of mastodon. 
A small left lower jaw, with one molar tooth, of four points ; 
being the anterior milk molar. This is from a very young 
individual, probably the youngest yet discovered, the first 
milk molar being scarcely at all worn.* 1 obtained likewise 
several other interesting portions, including teeth and bones, 
apparently all belonging to this small head. 
Four other large portions of lower jaws, all different, but with- 
out teeth. 
Thirty tolerably perfect separate molar teeth, besides large 

fragments of others.f 
Seven vertebrae, mutilated, and several portions of ribs. 
Two portions of scapulae. 

* The Tetracaulodon of the late justly lamented Dr. Godman, appears to me, after 
a careful examination of his specimen, to be another young individual, also of the com- 
mon mastodon, but older than mine, the anterior milk molars having begun to fall, 
after having been used until they were worn down. I have stated my reasons for this 
opinion, in a paper on the dentary system of the mastodon, which I read to the Lyceum 
of Natural History, in April, 1830. It appears, however, from recent observations, 
that the lower tusks, which I suppose all of the species to have possessed in their 
youth, were in some instances permanent during the advanced age of the animal. But 
whether this was a sexual characteristic, or merely an individual case of anomaly, of 
which I have seen other curious examples, I cannot recognize more than one species 
of mastodon, among the great quantity of their remains found in the United States, 
which have come under my observation, those just alluded to, included. 

We are happy to find that Mr. Cooper, who has given this subject so careful an ex- 
amination, and who has had such rare opportunities of studying the dentition of these 
animals, agrees with us so thoroughly in the opinion we have always expressed on 
this subject. Vide Monthly American Journal of Geology, &c. Vol. I. No. 3, p. 141. 

Editor. 

t Among these I include one similar to the tooth, also from Big-bone Lick, described 
by Dr. Harlan, as having belonged to an extinct species of tapir. That it is a young 
mastodon's tooth, is evident, I think, from the milk teeth still remaining in the head on 
which the supposed genus tetracaulodon is founded, as well as from the small jaw 
above described. 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 7 

Four humeri, much mutilated, three of them from the left 

side. 
Upper extremity of ulna. 
Five carpal, two metacarpal, and one phalangial bone of fore 

foot. 
Large fragment of os innominatum. 
Another, comprising the acetabulum. 
Lower extremity of left femur. 
Patella, tibia, epiphyses,; gone. 
Calcaneum. 

Besides numerous fragments, not requiring especial notice, 
but like the rest, indicating, by their shattered condition, the 
violence they were exposed to, before their final deposition 
at this spot. Some appear to have been a little rubbed, but 
the broken edges are generally sharp, and the surfaces un- 
scratched. 

The bones discovered by Mr. Finnell, in September, 1830, 
form one of the most interesting series belonging to the mastodon, 
that has probably ever been assembled. Having taken notes of 
these, while exhibited in New York this summer, I am enabled 
to give the following descriptive catalogue, in which I have in- 
cluded such anatomical, and other observations, as appeared to 
be new or interesting. The first will naturally be 

A head, more entire than any previously discovered here or 
eisewhere. It is still, however, too imperfect to enable me 
to complete the description of this important part, and it is 
especially to be regretted, that so much is wanting around 
the exterior opening of the nostrils, that we can derive no 
aid from it, in endeavouring to determine with certainty, 
from the structure of this part, whether or not the mastodon 
was furnished with a trunk. But enough remains to show, 
that it differed materially from the elephant's in form. It 
in fact bears more resemblance, in some respects, though to- 
tally different in others, to that of the rhinoceros, particu- 
larly in the nearly vertical elevation of the occiput, giving 
the skull the general form of a pyramid, of which the oc- 
ciput is the base, and the alveolar processes the summit, 
there being a gradual and pretty regular slope from be- 
tween these, nearly to the edge of the occiput. It is, 
however, much broader and flatter on the top, than in 



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8 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

either of these animals.* The following are the principal 
dimcnsions.f 

Feet. In. 

From the occiput to the end of the alveolar, 
from which a part is broken off, 

Breadth over the orbits, 

Girth lengthwise, 

Girth at the occiput, ...... 

Girth of the two alveoles of tusks at their origin, 

From the outside of the right anterior molar, to 
the outside of the left, 

From the outside of the right posterior, to the left, 

One tusk was found fixed in the socket, and the fellow lying 
near it. They are quite round, slender, and very uniform 
in diameter throughout, as far as they remain, the ends of 
both being broken off The anterior molars being gone, 
and the posterior, which have four pairs of points, being 
worn by use, show that the animal was quite adult ; though 
from its small size, and the slenderness of the tusks, it was 
probably a female. The curve of the tusks forms nearly a 
semicircle. The longer one measures six feet six inches, 
with a diameter of five inches. 

A large single tusk, which, when first found, was quite entire, 
though brittle from decay. It is very round, tapers gradu- 
ally to the point, measures in length nine feet two inches, 
and in circumference at the root, twenty-three and a half 
inches. It is remarkable for its slightly sigmoid curve. 

Eighteen pieces of tusks, from one and a half, to five feet long. 
These furnish some curious examples of dentition, from va- 
rious causes. Some appear to have been worn at the point by 
use, during the life time of the animal, and still retain a high 
polish. One or two are laterally abraded, in such a manner 
as to present a perfect section. 

A left upper jaw, with part of the socket of a tusk and one 
grinder. 

* This " flatness of the cranium" was first observed by Messrs. Mitehill and Town- 
send. See their account of the mastodon found at Chester, May 1817, in Mitcliill's 
Cuvier, App. p. 379. 

t Owing to the artificial state in which this head is at present exhibited, it is no 
longer possible to trace the sutures, or describe the separate bones. The general 
form is nearly all that can be safely described. For the same reason, no figure is now 
given. 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 9 

Left upper jaw, with part of socket of tusk, and two molars. 

Right upper jaw, with one molar, and an empty socket. 

Right upper jaw, with one molar, from a young individual. 

Left upper jaw, with one molar, still younger. 

Right upper jaw, with one molar, no empty socket, the enamel 
whitish. 

Right and left lower maxillary bones, each with the posterior 
molar, which is a little worn, perhaps belonging to one jaw. 

Chin of a young individual, with a short truncated beak, in 
which are the vestiges of sockets of caducous incisors, 
(similar to the tetracaulodon of Godman.) Part of the right 
branch remains, with a portion of the root of the anterior 
right molar. 

Two other chins with remains of sockets of anterior molars. 

Left lower maxillary, with the posterior molar, and an empty 
socket, and part of the chin. 

Right and left lower maxillary bones, forming part of the same 
jaw. The right is tolerably perfect, and contains the pe- 
nultimate and posterior molars, with the sockets of one or 
two others. The left consists only of the posterior half of 
the jaw, with the posterior molar, which in both is still 
partly buried in the ascending branch, showing that the in- 
dividual was not perfectly adult. 

Left lower maxillary bone of large size", with one molar, and 
an empty socket. 

Left lower maxillary of a young individual, with two molars 
of six points, and a germ, also of six points, but entirely 
buried in the bone, which is fractured in such a manner, 
as to expose the germ. From this piece we learn how 
many molars with six points, the mastodon possessed. From 
young jaws formerly discovered, it was already known that 
there were two of four points ; and the adult and aged spe- 
cimens make it evident that there was but one of eight or 
ten points, on each side, above and below. This gives six on 
each side, or twenty-four in all, as the total number of mo- 
lars. They were not, however, all in action at the same 
time. Probably not more than two at once, were in use at 
any one period of the animal's life, and finally, none but the 
posterior molar, with four or five pairs of points, and an ir- 
regular heel remained in the jaw. 



] Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

Left lower maxillary, with one molar of six points, and an 

empty socket before and behind it. 
Right lower maxillary, also with one molar, and two empty 

sockets. 
Right lower maxillary, with only the large posterior molar re- 
maining, and much worn, the sockets of the others obli- 
terated : evidently an aged individual. 

Right lower maxillary, with the posterior molar, enamel 
. whitish. The enamel is generally, it must be observed, very 
dark coloured, and sometimes black. 

Left lower maxillary, with two molars of six points, posterior 

half of the jaw wanting. A young individual.* 
Seventy-two molar teeth, presenting examples of nearly all the 
changes they undergo, from the state of a mere germ, of 
which the mastoid points alone remain, to that of an old 
and worn out tooth, in which the roots are completely os- 
sified, and remain uninjured ; while the crowns are worn 
down in such a manner, as to leave the bony substance of 
the tooth bare of enamel, which merely forms a border 
round the crown. 

! these molar teeth there are of the various kinds, 

\e with two pairs of points, and an odd shoulder, representing 
a fifth point, or possibly an indistinct pair. 

Thirty-nine, with three pairs of points. 

Fourteen, with four pairs of points, and an odd one. Of 
these ten belong to the upper jaw, and four, I think, to the 
lower. 

Fifteen with five pairs of points, and an odd one, or heel. — 
These are all lower jaw teeth, the posterior molar. 

Two with four pairs, and three small knobs in a row, besides 
a heel, and lateral tubercular knobs, and 

One with five pairs of points, and two knobs, too irregularly 
placed to form a pair. These three last are also lower pos- 
terior molars. 

Five atlas bones, with thirty-one other vertebrae, cervical, dor- 
sal and lumbar. A separate spinal process, though incom- 
plete, is twenty inches long ; most of them are very much 

* Of the fifteen portions of lower jaws here enumerated, the posterior molar remain- 
ed in eight. In two of these this tooth had four pairs of points, and an odd point or 
heel, besides ; in the six others, there were five pairs of points, with from one to three 
irregular knobs. 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 1 1 

mutilated, and a part may not improbably belong to the 
elephant. 
Fifteen ribs, more or less broken. 

Large sacrum, with portions of ossa innominata attached. 
Two portions of other sacra. 

Five scapulas, mutilated. Four retain the condyle. 
Seven humeri, all mutilated, and very imperfect. One wants 
the epiphyses, being from a young and small animal. Ano- 
ther consists merely of the condyles, others are no more than 
the shaft of the bone, with both ends broken off 
Three ulnae, of various sizes. 
A radius, lower end broken off. 

Fourteen or fifteen small bones of the fore feet, among which 
two cuneiform, and other carpal, and several metacarpal. 
A very large and nearly entire os innominatum. 
Two others, less entire, and appearing to belong together. 
Three others, consisting of little more than the acetabulum, 

with the thyroid foramen. 
A femur, nearly entire, thirty-eight inches long. 
Four others, more mutilated, some of larger size than the pre- 
ceding. 
Five other considerable portions of the same bone. 
A patella. 

Very large tibia, twenty-nine inches long. 
Three others, smaller. 

Another, of a young individual, the epiphyses wanting. 
Two astragali. 
Four calcanea. 

Immediately after Mr. Finnell discontinued, on procuring 
the bones just described, Mr. Bullock commenced digging near 
the same spot. He obtained many mastodon bones, as well as 
others ; but as his collection has never been examined by any 
anatomist, I have not the means of ascertaining which, or how 
many there were, belonging to this animal. His letters to Mr. 
Feathers tonhaugh mention, among others, " the ruins of a very 
large head, showing the interior structure in a very beautiful 
manner, with a large portion of the top of the skull." 

II. Fossil Elephant. (Elephas primigenius. Blumenbach.) 
Grinders belonging to a species of elephant, which, in the 



12 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

opinion of M. Cuvier, do not differ essentially from those of the 
fossil Siberian, have always formed part of the collections made 
at Big-bone Lick. Until recently, they had always been found 
detached, and in small numbers. 

It has been also stated that the elephant's teeth found here, 
were in a great state of decomposition; from which circumstance, 
and the absence of bones, it has been argued that they were of 
greater antiquity than the mastodon. But the facts are quite 
otherwise, as will presently appear. 

Remains of elephants, there can be no doubt, formed part of 
those carried away from this place by General Harrison, and 
those who preceded him. But what portions, and how many, 
whether teeth or bones, or both, cannot now be determined. 
Turner, in 1797, indicated the teeth as different from those of 
the mastodon, though he did not know what animal they were 
from. 

Goforth states, that he got many teeth of elephants, " some 
weighing 12lbs." besides tusks, that he supposed were elephants' 
which is very probable. 

Governor Clark brought away several elephants' teeth. Three 
were sent to France, and most of the remainder are preserved in 
the cabinet of the American Philosophical Society. But they 
were all detached molars without any bone, except the lower 
jaw bones of a young individual mentioned by Wistar, which 
miscarried on their way from Washington to Philadelphia, and 
do not appear to have been ever recovered. 

Many elephants' teeth, from Big-bone lack, are shown in the 
public museum at Cincinnati. They are likewise separate teeth. 

Among the teeth that I procured therein the year 1828, were 
four of elephant, all remarkably sound, and as free from decay 
as any teeth of mastodon I have ever seen, from Big -bone Lick 
or elsewhere. Indeed one of them, which was accidentally broke 
in getting, appears so fresh and sound within, that if I had not 
seen it taken out of the muddy stream myself, I might have been 
tempted to suspect some deception, like that mentioned by Cu- 
vier, when a dealer tried to impose upon him by incrusting an 
African elephants' tooth with marl. Another is an anterior milk 
molar, like that seen in the head of the Asiatic elephant, figured 
by Cuvier, pi. IV. f. 5 h. 

Among the remains disinterred in 1830, was an unusually 

Vol. I.— 22 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 13 

large proportion belonging to the fossil elephant. In the Finnell 
collection, I observed the following. 

Two very large tusks, forming a pair. The longer, though 
part of the large end is broken off, still measures 11 feet 10^ 
inches in length, and 22 inches in circumference. What 
remains of the other, measures 8 feet 10 inches, the small 
end being wanting. Both these are very much curved up- 
.ward, and a little outward, so as almost to form a complete 
circle. It is chiefly this peculiar curve, which is so com- 
monly observed in the fossil elephant's tusks found in Eu- 
rope and Siberia, that induces me to refer this pair to the 
elephant, of which several large heads, as will presently be 
seen, were found near where they lay. 
Right upper maxillary bone of a large individual, with a large 
and perfect molar, and part of one side of the great socket 
of a tusk. The tusks just described may not improbably 
have belonged to this head ; as well as the two next men- 
tioned pieces. 
Left upper maxillary, with a large molar tooth. 
Large molar, with portions of left lower maxillary. 
The greater part of the head of a young individual, comprising 
the jaws, both upper and under, with parts of the skull. 
The ascending branch is wanting from the left lower jaw, 
and is broken offin the right, but is preserved. In the upper 
jaws are two small molars which had been in use, and the 
same number below, besides a large germ buried in the right 
branch, which must have been concealed by the gum. 
Twenty separate molar teeth, nearly all entire and undecayed. 
An atlas, somewhat mutilated and rubbed, as if by rolling. 
This is the only bone in the collection that I could determine 
to my satisfaction to belong to the Elephant. The more perfect 
large bones of the extremities appeared to be all mastodon's. 
The shafts of bones, without articulating surfaces, as well as the 
vertebrae, which are much broken, may have been in part ele- 
phant. My opportunities for comparison were not sufficient to 
enable me to determine this. 

The collection formed at the same time, and in the same spot 
almost, by Mr. Bullock, is likewise very rich in remains of the 
elephant. In a letter to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, he states, that 
he commenced digging immediately after Mr. Finnell discon- 



14 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

tinucd, " and on the third day came to a very fine entire (or 
nearly so,) head of what I suppose to be the Siberian elephant, 
four feet long, having all the teeth and one tusk in it. It is the 
finest fossil I have ever seen, and the only one known except that 
at St. Petersburgh. 

Megalonyx. Jefferson. Cuvier. 

It was not until recently that any discovery of remains of this 
animal was known to have been made, besides those dug out of 
a cave in Virginia, about thirty-five years ago, and described by 
Mr. Jefferson, in the American Philosophical Transactions.* From 
the description given by Goforth, of the bones he found at Big- 
bone Lick, afterwards carried to England, there was reason to 
suspect, that among them there was some belonging to the 
megalonyx. But Mr. Bullock states, that there were none among 
those which came into his possession. The great claw mention- 
ed in Ashe's account, he says, in a letter to Mr. Featherston- 
haugh, was no more than a scapula of some animal, filed down 
to this shape. Until my journey to Ohio, in 1828, 1 had no posi- 
tive information of the megalonyx having been found, except in 
the one instance, above referred to. 

Messrs. Drake and Mansfield, in their " Description of Cincin- 
nati, in 1826," mention " bones of the megalonyx," preserved in 
the Western museum, in that city. Some of these I saw there, 
and was informed that they had been obtained by Mr. J. D. Clif- 
ford, from the White cave, in Kentucky. Besides these, I found in 
the same museum, a large humerus of megalonyx, discovered at 
Big-bone Lick, during one of the searches made there, by order 
of the proprietors. 

Mr. Cozzens and myself found also a metacarpal^ bone at the 
same place, no doubt belonging to the megalonyx. This bone, 
with all those in the Cincinnati collection, have" been described 

* Although caverns are extremely numerous in the limestone region of the United 
States, and have been often explored in search of nitrous earth, well authenticated in- 
stances of fossil bones found in them, are very rare. The following paragraph is ex- 
tracted from " A description of Big-bone Cave, in White county, Tennessee, by D. 
T. Maddox, Esq. Aug. 17, 1813," contained in an almanac published in the western 
country. 

" My guide now informed me, that in this apartment had been found bones of a re- 
markable size and figure. He said, they had dug up the talon of a lion, thirteen 
inches long, the hoofof an elephant, the ribs of the mammoth, and the skull of a giant ; 
but that they were all destroyed." 

The " talon of a lion," here mentioned,'may have been an ungueal phalanx, or even 
a claw, of a megalonyx. 



Notices of Big -bone Lick. 15 

and figured by Dr. Harlan, in the Journal of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 

Two additional instances of the occurrence of these remains 
were thus determined. 

Among those found by Mr. Finnell in 1830, are the following 
portions of the skeleton of a megalonyx. 
A right lower maxillary bone, with four molar teeth.* One of 
these, the anterior molar, is broken in the middle, and the 
upper half lost. The bone itself is so much mutilated, that 
barely enough remains to retain the teeth together, show- 
ing the violent action it was exposed to, before being 
buried. 
A detached molar tooth in very good preservation. It differs 
from all the four in the above described jaw, but not so 
much but that we may easily believe it to be from the up- 
per jaw of the same animal. 
A clavicle, probably of the same. 
A tibia, of the right side. 

In Mr. Bullock's letter to Mr. Featherstonhaugh, already 
quoted, he gives a sketch of a bone, of which he obtained four 
similar, during his late search. They are evidently the ungueal 
phalanges of a megalonyx. 

In the description of the megalonyx by Dr. Harlan, above re- 
ferred to, he has pointed out some differences in the teeth and 
bones discovered in the United States, which he considers as in- 
dicating two species of this genus. But the scanty materials we 
up to this time possess, do not, in my opinion, authorise us to de- 
cide upon specific characters. With respect to the teeth in 
particular, it is evidently fallacious to rely too much upon slight 
differences in them, inasmuch as we now see in the jaw lately 
discovered, that no two of the four are precisely alike, and the 
first and fourth, are, in fact, as dissimilar in the outline of their 
crowns, as possible. 

Remains of the megalonyx have also been found in South 
America. They were brought from Brazil, and placed in the 
collection of Munich, by the travellers, Martins and Spix. A 
late writer,f in the Annals of Philosophy, is therefore incorrect, 
in saying that they have occurred only between the parallels of 

* Vide PI. 3, Vol. I. No. 2, Monthly American Journal of Geology, &c. 
t Vid. Ferussac Bull. May 1829, p. 275. 



lti Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

30° and 40° N. lat.* From an account recently published by 
Dr. Wagner, it appears that the Brazilian megalonyx was like 
many of the remains hitherto discovered in North America, also 
found in a cave. 

Bos Bombifrons. Harlan. 

This extinct species, peculiar, so far as is yet known, to this 
country, was first distinguished, and its characters pointed out, by 
the late Dr. Wistar of Philadelphia,! in a paper read to the 
American Philosophical Society, accompanied with a good 
figure, in 1817 or 1818. 

Cuvier, as late as the third edition of his great work, makes no 
mention of it, although, unlike the three fossil species enumerated 
by him, it has the advantage of being so well distinguished from 
all the living species as to be in no danger of being confounded 
with any of them. Dr. Harlan first assigned it a place in the 
system under the expressive name of Bos bombifrons.\ 

The head described by Wistar was obtained at Big-bone Lick 
by governor Clark, and is preserved in the Philosophical Society's 
Cabinet. 

In the Finnell collection, I found a second head of this species, 
much in the same state as that figured by Dr. Wistar, or if any 
thing, rather less complete. Placed by the side of an analogous 
specimen of the buffalo, in the same collection, the differences 
were strikingly obvious. 

These two heads are the only remains that have been iden- 
tified as belonging to this species. Dr. Harlan, however, men- 
tions fossil teeth from Big-bone Lick that he thinks most pro- 
bably belonged to the same. 

Bos Pallasii. Dekay. 

This species is now first introduced among those whose remains 
occur at Big-bone Lick. During my stay there in 1828, a mu- 
tilated skull, with part of the core of one horn attached, was 
found in one of the streams near the great spring, where it had 
been used as a stepping stone, and brought to me. It is now de- 
posited in the Lyceum of Natural History. 

A skull similar to this, which was thrown up by an earthquake 
near New Madrid on the Mississippi, in the year 1812, forms the 

* Vid. Ann. Phil, for June 1831, p. 418. 

t Vid. Amer. Phil. Trans, vol. 1. new series, p. 375. 

t Fauna Amer. p. 271. 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 17 

subject of a paper in the annals of the Lyceum, by my friend Dr. 
Dekay. On the supposition that it belonged to the same species 
with some Siberian heads described by Pallas and Ozcrets- 
koosky, he proposes to call it Bos Pallasii. Their strong resem- 
blance to the musk ox is admitted by Cuvier and Pallas, and it 
is equally apparent in the American specimens, of which I have 
seen a third, from Ohio, besides the two above mentioned. If 
they should finally prove to be identical with the Bos moschatus 
it would be rendered doubtful, whether they ought properly to 
be enumerated among the companions of the extinct races, 
whose remains are deposited at Big-bone Lick. 

Kentucky appears to have been for ages the chosen habitation 
of many species of the bovine family. Besides the buffaloes, that 
within half a century abounded in that fertile country, we find 
at Big-bone the remains of two other species, while a fourth is 
proved to have formerly inhabited the same neighbourhood : the 
remarkable skull, a portion of which is preserved by the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, was found within ten miles. It is the 
Bos latifrons of Dr. Harlan, which Cuvier compares with the 
aurochs, Bos urus, of the old continent. 

Cervus Americanus. Harlan. 

In the paper which we have several times had occasion to 
refer to, Dr. Wistar describes an imperfect skull of a species of 
Cervus, which he found among those brought from Big-bone Lick 
by general Clarke. A careful comparison of it with the two 
great species of this genus that now inhabit the United States, 
led him to conclude that it came from an animal different from 
both these, and larger than either. Dr. Harlan has also describ- 
ed it in his Fauna, with the name of Cervus americanus. 

Among the smaller bones discovered in 1830 at Big-bone Lick, 
and since exhibited in this city, are several belonging to one or 
more species of deer. The greater part, I have no doubt, ar.e 
recent bones, but among them is a skull so similar to that figured 
by Dr. Wistar, and, though very large, so different from that of 
either the moose or elk, that I did not hesitate to refer it to the 
extinct species. It is not more complete than Dr. Wistar's spe- 
cimen, and bears the appearance of having been rolled. These 
are the only instances of the occurrence of this fossil with which 

I am acquainted. 

[ To be Continued.] 



NOTICES OF BIG-BONE LICK, 

Including the various explorations that have been made there, the animals to which 
the remains belong, and the quantity that has been found of each ; with a particu- 
lar account of the great collection of bones discovered in September, 1830. By 
William Cooper, member of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Zoological Society of 
London, &c. 

( Continued from page 174.) 

The six species of animals, of whose remains the preceding 
catalogue has been given, comprise all of those, found at Big-bone 
Lick, that in my judgment have a well established claim to be 
considered fossil, either as being now extinct, entirely, or under 
the same latitudes, or because they are found associated with the 
extinct species. 

How many individuals there must have been, to have furnish- 
ed these remains, is an inquiry, not only curious in itself, but 
which bears upon some speculations regarding the phenomena of 
their accumulation. Although it can no longer be precisely de- 
termined, some approximation may still be made. With this 
view, I have attempted an estimate from the following data : 

The total number of grinders possessed by the mastodon from 
infancy to old age, as I have elsewhere shown, was twenty-four ; 
of which there were sixteen with three or more pairs of points. 
• The greatest number of those existing together in the head, 
and, though not in use, sufficiently ossified to be preserved fossil, 
was twelve. 

The number existing and in use at the maturity of the species, 
was eight. 

At last in old age there remained but four, as in the Ele- 
phant. 

Supposing each individual to have been of mature age, neither 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 19 

very old, nor very young, (though examples of both have occur- 
red here, and may balance each other,) the fair average number 
of grinders to be allowed him, is, therefore, eight. 

The whole number of teeth in the Finnell collection with not 
less than three pairs of points, is, including those in the jaw s 
ninety-four ; which, with twenty-six similar, brought by me from 
the same place, makes one hundred and twenty. This, divided 
by eight, gives fifteen as the least number of individuals that 
could have furnished the teeth, contained in these two collections 
alone. 

To these are to be added, all that have been removed by 
Harrison, Goforth, Clarke, Bullock, the citizens of Cincinnati, and 
very many others; besides some, that, it is to' be presumed, still re- 
main in the bed.* If six or seven times the number are allowed 
for all these, it would certainly not exceed the probability. In 
fact I should be more inclined to say ten or twenty times as many ; 
and were big -Bone Lick on the top of a mountain, we might be 
tempted to think, that the whole race had retreated hither, to 
escape some general inundation. 

The number of individual elephants, might be conjectured in 
the same manner. They appear to have been to the mastodon, 
about as one to five. The smaller quadrupeds are probably 
fewer than might have been obtained, if more care had been 
used to collect and preserve them. In the following table, which 
is intended chiefly to show the proportions the several species 
appear to bear to each other, I have put down no more of these, 
than are known to have been found. 



SPECIES. 


NO. OF INDIVIDUALS. 


Mastodon maximus, 


100 


Elephas primigenius, 
Megalonyx Jeffersonii, 
Bos bombifrons 
Pallasii, 


20 
1 
2 
1 


Cervus americanus, 


2 



It is true that the remains of several other animals besides 
those just enumerated, occur abundantly at Big-bone Lick ; and 

* Mr. Bullock, however, who has been at much pains and expense to determine 
this, is of opinion " that all the strata near the Salt Lick of Big Bone, that contain 
animal remains have been examined." See letter to Mr. Fcathcrstonhaugh. 



20 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

I have myself, collected the bones of three or four more at this 
place ; the horse, the bear, the buffalo, and two or three species 
of deer, have been recorded among the fossil animals. But none 
of these appear to me to merit that epithet in the geological 
sense of the word. 

Except the first, they are all animals indigenous to the country, 
and there would be nothing surprising in finding their bones near 
the surface, or even, sometimes, at the depth of several feet, when 
it is recollected how often the ground has been disturbed by re- 
peated diggings. Bear's bones from this locality, I have never 
seen, nor indeed of any carnivorous animal, which I consider a 
remarkable circumstance. Antlers, jaws, and other remains of 
Cervus canadensis, C. virginianus, C. alces, and perhaps C. taran- 
dus, are not very rare. I think I have observed among the col- 
lections made at Big-bone Lick, traces of each of these. But 
they bear no proportion to those of the buffalo, whose bones are 
dispersed through the alluvial soil, or strewn over the surface in 
great abundance. The buffalo in modern times, as perhaps the 
mastodon in past ages, seems to have nearly monopolized this 
favourite haunt to himself. With the horse, the case is different, 
inasmuch as this animal is generally believed not to have been an 
aboriginal inhabitant of this continent* But it is not at all necessa- 
ry to suppose that he was so, to account for the simple circumstance 
of finding a few of his bones at this place. Within a few yards of 
the spot where the excavations of last September were made, are 
the vestiges of a fort, and several wells, the work of the first 
settlers of Kentucky, about forty or fifty years ago. They doubt- 
less brought horses with them, some of which may have died 
here, and their bones might easily have become more or less 
covered with earth in a place where wells were dug, and the 
ground tilled, as it has been here, for many years past. Nothing 
in regard to this point can be argued from the state of preserva- 
tion of any remains found at Big-bone Lick. I have now before 
me a tooth of a megalonyx found here, apparently as sound and 
fresh as any of the recent horse or buffalo. 

If any well identified remains of the horse had been found as- 
sociated in the same bed, with those of the extinct animals, in 
spots well known not to have been previously disturbed, we could 
not refuse to admit their equal antiquity with the rest. But I do 
* Uur author will find many individuals, entertaining a diflbrent opinion. — Ed. 



. Notices of Big-bone Lick. 21 

not think that this point has been sufficiently made out. I saw 
nothing in support of it myself, nor have I met with any person 
who could answer for such a fact, from his own careful observation. 
In the case of those recently exhibited in this city, one of the pro- 
prietors who assisted in disinterring them, acknowledged to me, 
that the horses' bones were generally near the surface, although 
part of a skull was found at the depth of twelve or fifteen feet ; 
but that they were all separated from the great bones, which 
lay at the depth of twenty two feet, and in a different kind of soil. 
Mr. Bullock, it is true, states that " the bones of the horse were 
found at various depths, from five to twenty feet, indiscriminately 
with the other bones." 

When the report printed in the first number of this Journal 
was presented to the Lyceum of New York, I was inclined to a 
different opinion, having been led to suppose that all the bones 
and teeth exhibited as fossil, had been found lying promiscuously 
together. But finding, upon stricter inquiry, that this was not the 
case, and that part at least of those belonging to the horse were 
undoubtedly recent, I consider it best to wait for more certain 
evidence before admitting the existence of an ancient race of 
this genus upon our continent. It is not a new thing, however, 
to hear of fossil remains of horses in this country. The first printed 
notice of them, as far as I am aware, is contained in Mitchill's 
" Catalogue of Organic Remains," pp. 7 and 8. They consist of 
a vertebra and several teeth found in New Jersey. In the col- 
lection of the Lyceum are likewise others, represented as fossil, 
from other American localities, but I know not upon what evi- 
dence. 

On the Position of the Organic Remains at Big-bone Lick. 

Nearly in the centre of the valley in which the great bone 
licks are situated, as may be seen by the map,* is a fountain, 
called by the inhabitants the Gum Spring. It is the most copi- 
ous, and the most distinguished for the peculiar properties of its 
waters of all that the valley contains. Opposite to this is a small 
island, formed by the division of one of the two principal branches 
of Big-bone creek, at its north-east point, one arm passing by the 
great spring, where it unites with the other branch, while the 
main body continues round the south side of the island, at the 
* See pi. 5, vol. I. No. 4, Monthly Journal of Geology, &c. 



22 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

south-west point of which they all unite their waters to form Big- 
bone creek. 

The fossil bones have all been found on the east and south- 
east sides of the Gum Spring, either along the western branch 
of the creek, about the point opposite the spring, or on the island; 
but always, except in a very few instances, within fifty or sixty 
yards of this spring. Within so small an area has been gathered 
the extraordinary quantity of which I have endeavoured to con- 
vey some idea in the preceding pages. Many excavations have 
been made in other parts of the valley, some in search of bones 
and others for salt water. At what is called the Big Lick, where 
a number of lime springs form a small miry spot like that at the 
Gum Spring, and about one hundred and fifty yards from it, a 
well has even been dug, and the soil examined to the depth of 
twenty-five or thirty feet, without any bones being met with. 
Yet here there would be the greatest probability of finding them 
if any where besides the spot described. 

It appears from various accounts, that at the period of the first 
settlement of the country the great bones were either lying on 
the surface of the ground, or so near it as to be obtained with very 
little labour. It is even said that they were so numerous on the sur- 
face about fifty years ago, that a person might walk over the lick 
by stepping from one to another, without touching the ground. 

Croghan gives the following short description of this place as 
he found it about twenty years previous to the occupation of the 
country by the whites. It is extracted from his manuscript 
journal of a voyage down the Ohio, now in the possession of Mr. 
Featherstonhaugh. 

" 30th, (May 1765.) We passed the great Miami river about 
30 miles from the little river of that name, and in the evening 
arrived at the place where the elephants' bones are found, where 
we encamped, intending to take a view of the place next morn- 
ing. This day we came about 70 miles. 

" 31st. Early in the morning we went to the great lick where 
these bones are only found, about four miles from the river on 
the south-east side. In our way we passed through a fine tim- 
bered clear wood. We came to a road which the buffaloes have 
beaten, spacious enough for two-wagons to go abreast, and lead- 
ing straight into the lick. It appears that there are vast quan- 
tities of these bones lying five or six feet under ground, which we 

Vol. I.— 27 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 23 

discovered in the bank at the edge of the lick. We found here 
two tusks above six feet long, we carried one, with some other 
bones, to our boats and set off This day we proceeded down the 
river about 80 miles." 

According to General Collaud, as quoted by Cuvier, the bones 
lay about four feet deep. General Harrison and Governor 
Clarke have never given any information on this head that I am 
aware of. 

Goforth relates, " we dug through several layers of small bones 
in a stiff blue clay, such as deer, elk, buffalo and bear, in great 
numbers, many much broken, below which was a stratum of 
gravel and salt water, in which we found the large bones, some 
nearly eleven feet deep in the ground, though they were also 
found on the surface." 

So recently as the summer of 1828, when I visted this place, 
bones of the larger animals were still to be found close to the sur- 
face, or in the bed of the stream near the great spring. Some 
of these, it was evident, had been previously disturbed, and there- 
fore no longer occupied their ancient position. But some teeth 
which I obtained were so large and so finely preserved, that they 
certainly would not have been left if they had been sooner dis- 
covered. These lay in a very low place, within less than two 
feet of the surface, and near the edge of the stream on the east of 
the Gum Spring. 

The bones discovered in 1830, by Messrs. Finnell and Bullock, 
were found under somewhat different circumstances from those 
just described. The following particulars, gathered from one of 
the proprietors who was present at their disinterment, and cor- 
roborated by the letters of Mr. Bullock, may be relied on. 

They were procured on the north side of the island, a little 
east of the great spring, and about fifty or sixty yards from it. 
The pit or well, originally dug by Mr. Finnell, was nine feet 
wide and about twenty-five deep. Mr. Bullock, thinking Mr. 
Finnell had not thoroughly examined it, afterwards re-opened 
and enlarged it in width and depth, and found many bones ; all, 
however, on the same level, and none deeper. The great bones 
were first met with at the depth of twenty-two feet, lying in a 
bed of about three feet in thickness. The two great heads of 
mastodon, and the large elephants' head found by Mr. Bullock, 
were lying near together. Below them, were three of the large 



2 ! Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

tusks, and intermingled with all these a large quantity of teeth 
and bones, of various animals. " They altogether formed," says 
Mr. Bullock, " a heterogeneous mass, lying horizontally, mixed 
with angular and waterworn pieces of limestone of various sizes, 
which contain marine shells, and rounded specimens of quartzose 
and other pebbles, as well as fragments of cane, small, unknown 
to me, and also fragments of broken fresh- water shells, much re- 
sembling those now living in the neighbourhood." I have been 
moreover informed; that immediately beneath the great bones, 
the workmen came to a bed of stiff blue clay, in which, except at 
its surface, no bones were found. This agrees with my own obser- 
vations and all the accounts I have heard, except Goforth's, ac- 
cording to whom, the great bones were partly found beneath the 
blue clay. I saw, it is true, the entire skeleton of a buffalo, with 
part of two others, dug out of the blue clay, where it is found im- 
mediately at the surface. But there were no remains of the ex- 
tinct animals, either with these or under the clay, which I saw 
penetrated down to a dry stony layer of a kind of marl. The 
buffaloes appeared to have sunk or been trampled into the clay, 
while soft from the effects of rain or floods. 

The great inequality of the ground near the spring, is the 
principal cause why some were obliged to dig twenty-two feet 
before finding bones of the large species, while others met with 
them at eleven, four, two feet, or even less. The surface of the 
island, for example, is much higher than that of the point, on the 
north of it; and this, than the bed of the stream; so that by digging 
two feet in one place, we would reach the same level that we 
would by digging twenty (eet, not many yards further off 

The position of the bones, fossil and recent, such as I have de- 
termined it from the comparison of the foregoing accounts, with 
my own observations made at the place, shall be now described. 

The substratum of the neighbouring country, is a limestone, 
abounding in organic remains. This appears at the surface on 
the sides and tops of the hills, and along the banks of the great 
rivers. From it must have been derived the fragments mention- 
ed in Mr. Bullock's account, as found accompanying the great 
bones. But at this lick, the valley is filled up to the depth of not 
less, generally, than thirty feet, with unconsolidated beds of earth 
of various kinds. The uppermost of these consists of a light yel- 
low clay, which, apparently, is no more than the soil brought 



Notices of Big-bo?ie Lick. 25 

down from the higher grounds, by rains and land floods. In 
this yellow earth arc found, along the water courses, at various 
depths, the bones of buffaloes and other modern animals, many 
broken, but often quite entire. 

Beneath this alluvial bed, is another thinner layer of a differ- 
ent kind of soil, presenting much of the character of a sediment, 
from a marsh or river. It is more gravelly, darker colored, softer, 
and contains remains of reedy plants, smaller than the cane 
so abundant in some parts of Kentucky, and shells of fresh water 
mollusca. It appears to be, in short, what is meant by diluvium, 
as distinguished from the alluvium, which forms the bed above 
it.* In this layer, resting upon, and sometimes partially im- 
bedded in a stratum of blue clay of a very compact and tena- 
cious kind, are deposited the bones of the extinct species. Origi- 
nally near the surface, they have been gradually covered by the 
accumulation of alluvial matter above them. 

The depth of this alluvium is, however, variable. In some places 
it is very thin, and in others is liable to be entirely washed away 
by the inundations which are common here at some seasons of 
the year. When this takes place, the blue clay is left bare, and 
the bones exposed on the surface. It is in such situations, and 
along the banks and bed of the streams, that they have been 
found nearly or quite uncovered. The Gum Spring, as may be 
seen by the map, is in the lowest part of the valley, near where 
the torrents from the surrounding hills meet, before they find a 
common outlet. The eastern branch of the stream, a few years 
ago, forced itself a new channel on the north side, of what there- 
by became the island, and united with the western, opposite the 
spring, instead of their former confluence at the south-western 
point. In this new channel I found several' finely preserved teeth 
and bones of the extinct animals. 

The side of the island which forms the south bank of the 
stream, opposite the spring, is steep, and much elevated above 
the surface on the other side, the yellow alluvial soil having ac- 
cumulated to a great height. Consequently, the bones which 
were found here in 1830, were deeply buried, as has been de- 

* The difference between it and the upper layer is so obvious, even to the work- 
men, who have been employed in digging here, that they have, with propriety, de- 
nominated it, the " bone soil ;" and this distinction is recognised whenever they meet 
with it, even in places where it does not contain bones. 



26 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

scribed, but were, notwithstanding, on a level with those pre- 
viously obtained in the low grounds to the north of them. 

On the Theory of Big-bone Lick. 

It is natural, at the first view, to suppose that the herds of ele- 
phants and mastodons were attracted hither by the salt, which 
they probably found as agreeable a condiment as the modern 
herbivorous animals; and that, like many of these, they died at 
the spot where their remains have been discovered. Such is the 
opinion of the present inhabitants, as well as of most persons who 
visit the place ; the sound condition of the bones, being naturally 
attributed to the antiseptic properties of the water of the adja- 
cent springs. There can be no doubt of the conservative quality 
of these; and it is highly probable that without it, the bones would 
scarcely have remained till now so free from decay as we find 
them. But they might easily have been preserved, at least for 
a considerable period, like those of which so many instances have 
occurred both in Europe and America, without this aid. More- 
over, it may be well doubted whether these salt springs formerly 
existed here. Bones are not always found at salt licks, even in 
Kentucky. There have been other instances besides this ; but 
the exceptions are, I believe, much more numerous. In New 
York I have never heard of fossil bones being discovered at 
Onondaga, or any other of the numerous salines of this state ; 
although not at too great a distance from the Wallkill, where 
these relics abound, to have been beyond the range of the same 
animals.* 

At the same time, however, I can readily admit, that they in- 
habited the neighbouring country, and that a few, perhaps, were 
at the spot, or dispersed through the surrounding woods and 
marshes, when the catastrophe occurred, which seems to have 
extinguished their race. 

Some of the appearances which the bones exhibit, have been 
alluded to in the course of our previous descriptions ; very few, 
indeed, if any, even of the smallest, were found without some 
mark of their having been subjected to violent action. Unlike 
those of which so many have been discovered in New York and 

* Part of an elephant's tooth, preserved in the Museum of the Albany Institute, 
and said to have been found somewhere along the line of the Erie canal, is the only 
instance within my knowledge of fossil remains of these animals from that part of our 
state. 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 27 

New Jersey, where the animals seem to have perished quietly 
on the spot where their remains are found, the parts belonging 
to each individual lying near each other, and sometimes entire 
skeletons without a bone displaced,* the frames of those found at 
Big-bone Lick, seem rather to have been torn asunder, and in- 
termixed in the most promiscuous disorder, before they were per- 
mitted to find here a place of rest. It is rare to meet with a 
single bone of the large animals, or of those smaller ones, that 
accompany them, that is not more or less bruised or broken. Of 
all the under jaws brought from this place, I have seen but one, 
in which at least one side was not wanting ; and in this the teeth 
were all gone. This cannot be ascribed to brittleness from de- 
cay ; for, as is well known, the bones found here are remarkably 
hard and solid. Still they are much less entire than those found 
in the state of New York, whose texture is generally impaired 
by decomposition. Some of those, which I collected at Big-bone 
Lick, have their cancelli entirely filled with stony matter, by 
which their weight and hardness are much increased. But 
generally, they look like fresh bones; and the fact of their retain- 
ing gelatine, which I have verified, is well known. 

Mr. Bullock says, in his account of those discovered last year, 
which were too deeply buried to leave room to suspect that they 
had been ever before disturbed, since they were brought to the spot 
where he found them, " many of the bones are much waterworn 
and broken ; scarcely any that are not so, more or less. Some 
large fragments of the tusks of the elephant are worn quite flat 
and smooth, as if they had lain half buried in a water course, and 
worn down by the action from above." In fact, the mere cir- 
cumstance of finding so large a number of detached teeth as has 
been often found, lying together within a small compass, is alone 
sufficient to prove that the owners did not perish where these 
lie. In that case, the teeth would have remained in the respec- 
tive heads, and have, consequently, occupied a much larger space. 
The teeth of buffaloes, which there is every reason to believe 
died from time to time at or near the spot, are never met with 
in heads separated from the bones, as is the case with those of 
the elephant and mastodon. 

It has been attempted to account for the heaping up of the 
bones and teeth found last autumn, which it is said formed a sort 
< See Aim. ils Lyceum of N. Y. vol. 1. p. 143. 



28 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

of pyramid, with t iree great tusks encircling its base, and sur- 
mounted by the great head discovered by Mr. Finnell, by ascrib- 
ing it to the aborigines, who, it was supposed, may have amused 
themselves by piling them up in this manner. In that case, it 
must have been done in some very remote age, to allow time for 
two distinct beds of soil to have accumulated over them to the 
height of twenty-five feet, and in a place where these operations 
are carried on upon so small a scale. But some allowance must 
be made for the effects of the imagination in those who thought 
they saw such appearances of order in this ancient charnel house, 
which, if it really existed, it would be difficult to verify under 
such circumstances. 

Similar heaps of fossil bones of elephants and other extinct 
animals, have been discovered, in several parts of Europe, though 
it has not been pretended, that they were brought together in 
this manner. Indeed the human race has been supposed, not to 
have inhabited the same countries at the epoch of the deposition 
of these bones. One instance occurred at Selburg, near Canstadt 
on the Necker, in 1816, where was discovered " a group of thir- 
teen tusks and some molar teeth, of elephants, heaped close upon 
each other, as if they had been packed artificially."* Another 
was at Thiede in Brunswick, in the same year, where a congeries 
of tusks, teeth, and bones, belonging to the elephant, rhinoceros, 
horse, ox, and stag, was found in a heap, of ten feet square. 
There were no less than eleven tusks of elephants, some being of 
the largest size ever discovered. The appearances they present- 
ed, as described by Dr. Buckland, were altogether so strikingly 
similar to those observed in the pit dug at Big-bone Lick, that 
it is no more than reasonable to ascribe them to the same cause. 

But, at the same time, that we "find so much reason to suppose 
that the great bones, as well as those of the other extinct species, 
have been brought hither, since the death of the animals, and 
probably by the agency of water, it does not seem probable that 
they have been transported from a very great distance. Most 
of the appearances they afford, seem to indicate sudden and 
violent, but not long continued action. Even the thickest and 
strongest bones are found, broken short off into several truncheons, 
but the edges and angles of the fractures are commonly sharp, 
and not rounded, as much rotting would have made them. The 
BuckJand ReBq. Diluv. p. 180. 



Notices of Big-bone Lick. 29 

grinders are found entire, with broken, but undecayed portions of 
bone entangled between their roots. Such- as appear rubbed, or 
waterworn, may be those that have been washed out of their 
ancient bed, in modern times, or may have been the remains of 
individuals that died before the general destruction. The later- 
ally worn tusks, already described, perhaps belonged to some of 
these ; and this abrasion may have been slowly effected, before 
the comminution of the others took place, and by different 
means. If, during some general inundation, a whirlpool had 
formed in this valley, from which, after much violent collision, 
these bones were deposited, the heads, teeth, and tusks, and other 
hard and heavy parts settling down together, where is now the 
great spring, many of the remarkable circumstances we have 
noted, would be explained. Dr. Buckland, in endeavouring to 
account for the similar accumulations of various teeth, and bones 
found in Germany, says " they were most probably drifted together 
by eddies, in the diluvian waters."* I had not observed this pass- 
age, when I was led to account in the same manner, for the pile 
at Big-bone Lick ; which I mention, merely to show how natu- 
rally this idea suggests itself. 

I do not venture to say any thing with regard to the period at 
which this event may be supposed to have taken place. The 
natural phenomena do not furnish data sufficient to enable us to 
fix upon this with any degree of precision. I will merely ob- 
serve, that it must be referred as far back as we can conceive it 
possible for animal substances to be preserved under the circum- 
stances described. 

Enough has been established, however, to authorize us to con- 
clude, that the region which borders the Ohio was formerly in- 
habited by different animals from those which have peopled it 
from the earliest times of which we possess any account. 

Two of these, the mastodon and megalonyx, belonged to ge- 
nera now unknown, but having much affinity, to some that still 
inhabit the torrid zone. The former, though allied to the ele- 
phants, was materially different in the teeth and some other par- 
ticulars, indicating a considerable difference in habits. The other 
was allied to the sloths, and their co-ordinate genera, but was 
greatly superior in size to any species now living. 
•> 

Buckland p. 181. 



30 Notices of Big-bone Lick. 

A third belonged to a very natural genus, of which two spe- 
cies exist in the warm regions of the old continent ; but this was 
specifically different from both, and, as regards America, the 
genus even is entirely extinct. 

There were likewise others which belong to the same genera 
with some now naturally inhabitants of the same region. These 
are two species of bos, and one of cervus. 

There is no evidence of any animals of the carnivorous order 
having accompanied them. 

They appear to have perished by the agency of water, which, 
after transporting their remains a moderate distance, deposited 
them in a mass where they have since been found. 

They were succeeded, after an interval, by the species which 
now inhabit the country. 



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